The Core
Catacombs Within Cybertron The tunnels of Cybertron's catacombs are an endless maze of twists and turns, swallowing light and your sense of direction simultaneously. Chambers both small and large branch off the tunnels, concealing who knows what artifacts and creatures. Contents: Windshear Carjack Twin-Gunned Starfighter Fusion Crude 'W' Obvious exits: Up Dark Passage Through the dark catacombs of Cybertron, a bright lavender light shines, throwing up great shadows along the various pillars and tunnels. The light's source? Galvatron's cannon! "Stay close to me, Decepticons," Galvatron says as he stalks through the Catacombs. "The catacombs are immensely confusing, and only *I* know the way to our destination." He peers back at the assembled Decepticons. "Where's Crowbar?" Crowbar being a gumby that had accompanied the group, at least, until now... Fusion looks to the right and left (previously he'd been looking down to enter cartographic data into a handheld device). "Who?" Windshear gazes around as he follows Galvatron through the catacombs and when the Decepticon Leader mentioned the mech in question he looks at everyone there. "I dont see anyone by that name, My Lord." he rumbles shortly after Fusion said 'who?' Carjack has a Decepticon sized mag-light style flashlight in one hand. Because all though he has his vehicle mode lights visible in robot mode, they're rather awkwardly placed over his feet and knee-guards to actually be illuminated. He pauses at Galvatron's inquiry, turning to sweep his light behind them. ".. I think we're going to need a new Crowbar." Hun-Grrr has arrived. You have no meetme attribute, perhaps the invitation ran out. Dirge has arrived. The blue Experimental F-15 warps, bends, and reconfigures itself into the form of Dirge, Decepticon warrior! In the back of the pack, stepping out of the shadows, is not some random gumby Seeker at all, but rather DIRGE, fierce DECEPTICON WARRIOR. He calmly steps forward. "He is lost, you see. Enveloped by the world of his birth. Eaten by the dark." Galvatron frowns as apparently not only has no one else seen him recently, but some of them don't even seem to remember him at all. He holds up his cannon as he observes a shadow approaching, illuminating it with the glowing tip of the barrel, but makes a face as he sees that it is only Dirge. "Hnnh. Apparently so, Dirge. Well! Survival of the fittest and all that, right? Let's carry on." He continues into the darkness, cannon held forth. "A new day is about to dawn, Decepticons. It will see the restoration of our homeworld, and it will be the beginning of the end for the Autobots and their human pets. You will see!" There seems to be a noise echoing through the chambers of the catacombs. A vicious monster must lurk here, and it must have gotten Crowbar. It's a snarling, mangy beast, with row upon row of razor sharp fangs as it tears into its delight. The creature seems to ooze some chemical from its teeth, some kind of form being created by a chemical reaction to its hapless victim. But then, it raises an arm in anger. Wait, no, that's not an arm. It's another head. The creature's second head looks down upon the group as they come ever closer. Tossing what looks like an arm down towards the centre, they soon realise that it is no beast. And it is not Crowbar, which it had been eating. For the arm it tossed bore the mark of the Autobots. And its devourer is none other than the Terrorcon Commander, Hun-Grrr. Fusion pauses at the sound, then turns his head to watch Hun-Grrr before turning away slightly. Finally he hurries to catch up with Galvatron. "Restoration of our homeworld? That sounds promising. I don't get out much, but it's clear even to me that the planet isn't what it used to be." Carjack shrugs his odd-shaped shoulders, unbothered by the disappearance of a gumbie. "Too true... maybe we'll find his remains on the way back for scrap... and then rebuilding Cybertron into the rightful monument of the Empire's glory it should be!" Carjack replies as he turns his flashlight back foward. "HOLY SLAG WHAT IS --" Pauses in mid-yelp as the light beam reflects off the rest of Hun-Grrr after startling him by glinting off all those teeth. "-- Oh, it's just the Terrorcon." Yeah, after the short encounter the other night he bothered to actually look designations up. Dirge echos Galvatron's action by raising his own weapons to bear on the approaching monster. When it is revealed to be Hun-Grrr, he maintains that aim, just for a moment. Pale yellow optics flicker. "We have reached the edge of the world, Lord Galvatron, for here there are monsters. And they are us." His arm lowers. Windshear has remained silent though this exchange, having nothing to add to it. But then the present conversation is interupted by a half eaten arm tossed out toward them and he brings his weapons online. But then then as the light shines onto the creature that did this he sees its Hun-Grr. Windy relaxs his stance a bit and smirks, "Found your teammate yet, HunGrr?" Galvatron's cannon snaps over to the apparent threat, but when he sees what it really is, he smirks. "Ah, of course. My own little monster. And quite true, Dirge, but of course we must remember that not all the monsters down here are on MY team." His immediate concerns put to rest, he continues down into the darkness. "Well, of course, we HAVE been restoring our homeworld. But thus far, all we've REALLY managed to do is put on a new coat of paint. In order to truly restore the planet, and take advantage of the energy radiating towards us from our three suns, there's one little thing we have to do." Galvatron eventually stops in front of a plain wall, with no distinguishing features marking its surface. He frowns, pulls out his datapad to check something, then puts it away. "Someone run a scan or something, find out what's behind that wall. If I'm right, there won't be ANYTHING immediately on the other side." The Two-Headed Dragon is most likely Hun-Grrr, but seeing as it at no time spoke, it's hard to tell. That alternate mode is after all, based on an indigenous techno-organic creature. Still, the fact it threw away a piece of its meal, that certainly couldn't be Hun-Grrr. No, since when has he ever been known to do such a thing. The creature continues to snarl and growl, but it eventually moves off into the darkness of its own catacomb. Very strange behaviour, that one. Dirge clasps his hands behind his back, leaning forward just slightly. "Nothing, liege, or something hidden?" Fusion moves forward, hefting a tricorder-like device that Decepticons without the proper scanning Ability are forced to use. "Running diagnostics right now...hmm, according to this, wall is in concious and combat-ok..." He adjusts a few controls on the side of the device. "Ah, just as you suspected. Nothing immediately on the other side." Just for confirmation, he also employs the slightly less scientific method of tapping on the wall with the back of his knuckles. "Very thick, and beyond a few feet there could be anything." His part done for now, Fusion steps back to let someone else take the lead. Carjack ehs, trotting a bit closer for his own look. "Sorry mylord, I'm not a construction engineer when it comes to foundations." Pauses a moment. Turns his head a little, does a shifty glance one way, then the other... and then quickly snatchs up the discarded bit of arm, shaking some of the drool off, and tosses it into one of his storage compartments. It might still be useful! Lines up with the other Decepticons like nothing even happened. Windshear knows there are others better suited to scan that wall so when the two headed Dragon does not reply to him he looks at it and watches it move off into the darkness. Was that Hun-Grr or something else that just looked like him. He takes a step toward where the monster mech headed off to and listens to see if its suddenly going to turn around and come back at them. Galvatron smiles. "Goooood. Yes, as I thought. Well, the only thing to do now is go THROUGH!" He transforms, then, and fires an intense blast into the wall. The impacted area instantly glows white hot, and the heat visibly spreads to the rest of the wall as the potent energies are poured into it. Metal vaporizes, or sprays out in a liquid form, suggesting tremendous damage--and yet, when Galvatron ceases firing, there's no hole, only a melted crater. Galvatron transforms, enraged. "Whhhattt? Impossible! Who could design a barrier that could thwart ME?! Decepticons, salvation and victory lie on the other side of that wall! Make a way through!" Ok the heck with the two headed mech, Windys attention sure got diverted back as Galvatron blasted the wall. He turns back expecting to see no more wall and only sees it cratered a bit. "What the?" he mutters and then as Galvatron gives the order to make a way through he raises his cannons and starts to fire but then realizes if his lords cannon couldnt break it, his sure as slag wont even scratch it. Cutthroat has arrived. Carjack blinks his optics a couple of times. "Guess it was made of sterner stuff. Will wonders never cease, but surely mylord, it is but a temporary setback" But then starts cackling as he steps past the Decepticon tyrant. "I have JUST the thing for stubborn obstacles." He holds out his right arm, mechanics hissing and clanking as they lock into place to extend into his 'Jaws of Death'. He steps forward and thrusts the combination piledriver/metal cutting hydrolics into the crater made by the cannon blast in an attempt to rip farther into the annoying wall. While one Two-Headed Dragon seemed to have wandered off to the left, another appears from an opening on the right. Either the darned thing managed to doubleback on the party of intrepid explorers, or they are not the same two-headed dragon, growling and snarling, eerily similar to the earlier noise, the dragon approaches. "Who or what, set off that light ?" Twin-Gunned Starfighter steps to the side of his leader Galvatron. "My leader, I can assist, I shall obliterate this obstacle in the name of the Decepticon cause, destroying it in the fashion I have perfected using Autobot carcasses! The passage I shall construct with my might will be glorious and I shall complete this task in the name of your mighty rule! This wall of stone is no match for..." Sixshot's complex form shifts and folds, becoming upright and forming the robot mode of the fierce one-Decepticon army Sixshot. The second of the Two-Headed Dragon's states, "Will somebody tell that Con to tone it down, all that sycophancy is giving me a headache." Sixshot continues to expound about glory, Galvatron, Decepticons, and mightiness. "You get used to it, after a while," Fusion comments to Hun-Grrr. Galvatron steps back and lets Carjack go to work. "By all means, soldier! Make yourself useful! After all, I didn't drag the lot of you down here just to see the sights!" he says. He doesn't hear much else over the raucous hammering, which is amplified in the tunnels, echoing back to the Decepticons several times. "Sixshot," Galvatron says with annoyance, unable to hear him, and unable to tell that he's talking due to the absence of facial features on the six-changer, "Don't just stand there! Smash the wall, shoot it... something!" Dirge reaches out slowly to bring his hand near the melted section of wall. "Such power," he whispers, "yet power is not always the measure of success. Liege, we are deep in the catacombs. Primus himself may have crafted these walls. Gods have been felled before." Windshear catches Dirge's words and has to agree with them. Then he catches something out of the corner of his right optic and looks over quickly to see.. Hun-Grr. He frowns, "Wait you were -- " he looks back over where the other one was, where hes facing right now then back at Hun-Grr, "Werent you just... nevermind." he looks back at the wall and says, "Think you can take a bite our of that?" Mechanical Wyvern hops up and down, flapping his not quite regulation-sized wings. "Need destroy wall? Me destroy wall! Rip! Tear!" The Robo-Wyvern looks eager to do some damage. Galvatron yells back at Dirge, unable to hear him very well either over the jackhammer, "What? Well, yes, once we're inside, the Autobots will be felled indeed!" After several minutes of the reciprocating ruckus the hammering stops ... only to be followed by the screech of material rending as the head of the device opens up, clamps onto a section and rends it free. Carjack stumbles back a couple of steps as he staggers to keep his balance after the loss of resistance, a chunk of the wall composition clutchd in its cutting clamps. "I think I got some of the support infrastructures compromized. Try blasting it now." Continuing to babble for a moment, Galvatron's words catch up to Sixshot a moment later. "What? Ah...yes my liege!" hge says, and twists his upport torso, his arms moving down and legs twisting around into his Ramming Tank form. The tank's engine revs, and he goes flying between the other Decepticons, narrowly missing Carjack with his jackhammer, smashing into the wall. "Slag it! What is this wall made of?" he says. Carjack is now very glad he stumbled back out of the way. The form of Sixshot bends forward, folds under and turrets flip out, blasters fold forward, and he sits before you in his tank form. Dirge's optics flicker as he settles his gaze on Galvatron. "Hrnnh.. yes, Lord Galvatron," he rasps. Then he leaps out of the way of the ramming tank. "Sixshot!" he hisses sharply, annoyed. Galvatron scowls at the wall, and the hole that Carjack made. "That's a good start, but we need more. Hm... no, I don't think I'll bother exerting myself, especially not when I've got a tool built specifically for crude demolition RIGHT THERE." He points at Hun-Grrr and Cutthroat. "Terrorcons, merge to form Abominus, and finish the job!" Hun-Grrr's heads both look towards the cratered door. Impressive, he thinks to himself. If Galvatron tried to break that down and still failed, that's got to be worth some lines in somebody's book. He hangs back, standing near the green and gold creature that is Cutthroat, whom it seems he finally found. He didn't hear Windshear thanks to all the clanging, but had he, he'd have been just as confused about it. He was prepared to let the others do their best, and they'd probably eventually get it open, but then he looks to Cutthroat, who seems so eager to destroy it. And he must admit, tearing that door asunder does appeal to him as well. Finally, when there is at long last some silence between clangs, he shouts up, "Terrorcons, merge and form Abominus!" Windshear steps out of the way. Hes really pretty useless right now so the last thing he needs to be is.. in the way. Whooo, gestalt destruction! Carjack quickly scrambles out of the way as the lumbering brute is formed so he can finish the job. Dirge executes operation Get the Hell Out of the Way, using his foot jets to blast himself back down the tunnel a few dozen yards. "Hrnnh.. Abominus.." he hisses softly. Mechanical Wyvern transforms and merges with his fellow Terrorcons, his consciousness melding in with his comrades'. Galvatron also steps back from the Terrorcons, though perhaps at a more leisurely pace than the other Decepticons. Galvatron doesn't afraid of anything. "But my mighty Galvatron! Am I not suitable to bring destruction in your name? For I can demlish this wall like no other in existance! This wall is nothing! I t will shatter like glass standing against my might!" he says, and shifts into his laser vehicle form. "I will pulverize this wall in the name of the might and glory of the Decepticons!" he says, lowering his laser cannons and firing at the wall. "Fwwwwwwap!" it goes, making a large scorchmark on the wall. "Thwwwwwwip!" goes another blast. Fusion watches each Decepticon's contribution with mild interest, then turns towards the Terrorcons. He glances up at the top of the tunnel, trying to estimate if there'll be clearance for a gestalt or if he'll have to stoop. Windshear continues to stay out of the way and he just watches the collective effort to take down the wall. Though from time to time, the Seeker does look around curiously, if for nothing else then to make sure they arent snuck up by something hostile. Galvatron sighs and would roll his optics if he could. "Yes, Sixshot, you're absolutely wonderful. You're amazing, really, you are. But the thing is, as great as you are, you, eh, heheh, you may want to move. Abominus is strong, but he doesn't exactly have the precision of a surgeon! Although... that could be funny! Yes, capture an Autobot and have Abominus "operate" on him! Oh, hahaha, I'd want to see that!" Armored Ram Tank turns to Abominus. "Yes! Abominus! Your might combined with my unstoppable blasts of laser fire! An inconceivable yet unfathomably powerful combination!" he says, and then leaps into the air. Leaping into the air, Sixshot subspaces a percentage of his mass, then folds down, wings flipping togewther and out, and extending several nasty looking gun turrets as he becomes his laser pistol (more like a hand cannon) form! Dirge's optics dim considerably. "Abominus is.. not the sort to use external weaponry. At least in its intended fashion." He's clearly waiting for Abominus to start beating the wall with the pistol. Sixshot floats there in front of Abominus. "Use my laser blasts of searing oblivion! Together we shall turn this wall to space dust, in the name of Galvatron and the eventual Decepticon conquest of all that exists!" High Tech Pistol floats there in front of Abominus. "Use my laser blasts of searing oblivion! Together we shall turn this wall to space dust, in the name of Galvatron and the eventual Decepticon conquest of all that exists!" Windshear folds his arms and leans back against the wall, just watching. He raises an optic ridge when Sixshot transforms into gunmode and goes into the Gestalts hands, "Oh this is different." he says to no one in particular though hes probably closer to Carjack then anyone else so posiblye that con heard him. With all five Terrorcons merged as one, Abominus comes to life. The mammoth of a Decepticon sucks in air, mimicking breathing, but actually it's part of a process to cool his internal circuitry. The sound it makes it immense, a low, guttural growl as the air fills its mouth. Glowing yellow eyes burn with interest at the door that had vexed the Decepticons below. It moves forward on massive feet, making intends in the ground as it approaches. Then, along it's path it stops. But it doesn't exactly stop on a dime. A great deal of dirt forms at its feet, unnatural bunkers that will remain there for the foreseeable future. It looks at Sixshot, who has become a fearsome looking gun. It reaches out and grasps the gun, but it doesn't fire at the door. Instead, it simply gives the door one hell of a left punch. Rippersnapper is going to be feeling that one for days as the impact vibrates both the door and Abominus. And if anything remains from its fearsome attack, it will point the gun and press the trigger. "And exciting!", the medic pipes up in reply to the Seeker. Carjack is enjoying the show, to say the least. High Tech Pistol says, "Fall! Fall, insignificant wall! Crumble and yield to the unstoppable combined power of Abominus and Sixshot!" Galvatron smiles, watching the wall bow inward from the punch, and more metal pour away from its surface. "Yes, yes, we have to be almost there! Blast it, I'd almost prefer to have to deal with Autobots! They SCREAM when you smash them, at least!" Dirge looks calmly from Sixshot to Galvatron. "A means to that end, Lord." The gigantic gestalt snarls wordlessly at the obstacle that he knows must come down. Coherent thoughts are almost subdued in the monstrosity's rage. All Abominus knows is, when that door comes down, Galvatron will be happy. And perhaps he'll get to crush Autobots as well, as a result. After hammering fiercly on the door, Abominus uses the Sixshot Pistol in his hand to fire a powerful blast. "GAHHHHHRRRR, DOOR GO DOWN! RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAH! High Tech Pistol fires his lasers all at once in a cohesive beam, until the wall begins to become a warm red. "Now, Abominus! Strike with all your might, so that our merciless and infinitely inspring leige can see what our power can accomplish!" Sixshot says, not actually speaking per se...the overzealous voice seems to eminate from the gun itself. Windshear keeps his arms folded, the look on his face the same focused on the door smashing in front of him but he eeans toward Carjack. "There better be something good behind that door...or Im going to feel cheated." At long last, that final shot from Abominus and the six-changer burns a blazing white hot hole through the wall, creating an opening that a Transformer could crawl through. "Yes, yes, finally!" Galvatron says. "I swear, thwarted by such a mundane obstacle! I'd ALMOST prefer to have to deal with Autobots right now! Well. Follow me, Decepticons!" He hops into the breach, but his bulky body gets a little stuck in the hole, and the tyrant kicks and struggles as he tries to pull himself through. Finally, with a great scream of rage, he forces himself through with a tremendous screeching noise and a snap as the "handle" that sits on his back is broken off. Standing up on the other side, he holds up his cannon, charging it just enough to cause it to project a lavender light. The room Galvatron is now in is enormous--hidden behind that wall was a dome-shaped chamber, and in the center of that chamber, the object which Galvatron is gazing on with greed and wonder, is a dark, metallic sphere, suspending in place by what may cables, or pipes. "That's *it.* Hahahaha. HAHAHAHAHAHA! AAAHAHAHAHAHA!" Fusion slips into the chamber soom after, running his scanner over the cables, then tracing them towards the sphere. He nids at something on the display, then looks up. "What is it?" Carjack idly picks up the prong busted off Galvatron's back as he scampers through the forcibly made entry hole -- being only gestalt member sized does have it's perks as he has little trouble compared to the others in climbing through. Immeadiately he slides up behind Galvatron. "Hold still mylord." And doing his medically duty of reattatching the broken piece to Galvatron's backside. Then peers around the larger Decepticon. "That's wonderful Lord Galvatron.... but what -is- it?" he echos the same question everyone else is asking. Windshear follows the rest inside the chamber quietly. Abominus is of course too big to squeeze through a hole that barely admitted Galvatron. He growls and pulls at the edges, attempting to widen it. For some reason he doesn't just consider de-merging and going through as seperate Terrorcons. Fusion fades into the background with gumbies and other scenery. Galvatron makes a brief hiss of annoyance as Carjack repairs him, but doesn't stop him. Once the medic's done, he begins to approach the sphere, eventually walking under it. "Long ago, Cybertron had immense rivers of energon as far as the optic could scan. One needed only to gather it and he would be sustained. However, eventually our war with the Autobots depleted this energon... or so the history files say." His tone becomes dark as he approaches some of control panel with a body slumped over it. "The truth may be worse than that, however. You see, Cybertron used to provide energon by converting it from solar collectors, and other sources. Even background radiation would produce a small amount. But SOMEONE, it is believed by some, may have sabotaged this natural energy production in a misguided attempt to stop the war. Starve us out, you see." Galvatron stops by the panel. The body is of an unidentified Cybertronian, with a dated design. A huge polearm is embedded in his back, and appears to have pinned him to the panel. The dead mechanoid's lifeless arm is reaching for a switch that appears to be in the "off" position. "All that's going to change. This--" Galvatron says, gesturing up at the sphere, "is the core of Cybertron, and this is what once provided our world with life-giving energon, and it shall do so once again! Once I throw this switch, everything will change FOR THE BETTER!" He grasps the switch the dead mechanoid never reached, and throws it to the "on" position. Nothing happens. Galvatron waits nervously, then tries to move the switch back and forth between the two positions. "What--nothing's happening! The controls, they're not responding!" "It is glorious! It shall be the vehicle to our enemies' demise! It...my leige, what *is* it?" Sixshot says, still in gun mode. He leaps down from the grasp of Abominus and transforms. Sixshot's complex form shifts and folds, becoming upright and forming the robot mode of the fierce one-Decepticon army Sixshot. Carjack's attention is quickly grabbed by the dead chassis as Galvatron shoves it aside, salvager instincts kicking in. Almost immeadiately he bolts to it, retracting his maine weapon and pulling out a couple of his dismantling tools, eyeing the corpse eagerly. If nothing else it can be smelted down into its core material compounds and reforged into new alloys for repairs if its parts can't be recycled direct--eh? He looks up as Galvatron rants about the switch not working. "Perhaps, mylord, whoever initially turned the system off disconnected the console to keep it from being so swiftly activated? If they did intend to starve us as you say, likely they would of," he pauses to yank the polearm out of the corpse and hold it up as if it were an example, "taken precautions against their plans being foiled so swiftly." Its one of those rarer moments his true level of intelligence shows. Enjoy it while it lasts. Windshear walks cautiously toward the sphere and examines the cables. He doesnt touch anything but he is looking to see if everything is still connected and if its all still in good shape. And everything seems to look fine. "For what its worth." he rumbles, "Everything looks as it should be on this end. Everythings connected and nothing looks decayed." Dirge reaches forward to place his hand on the figure's head. "Who was this, Lord? Was it a soldier, a guardian? One of ours, or something.. older?" he muses. Abominus does not consider de-combining. He recognises that he is far more powerful than his component parts, and instead wages his own personal war against the opening, trying to expand it. He reaches in and grabs a good hold of each side of the opening, and tries to widen it through the application of sheer brute strength. And it seems to be working. He's curling them up, widening it, but it may take some time before it widens enough that a combiner could slip through. When that doesn't seem to work, he takes a step back and gives it a thunderous kick, his foot making a dent in whatever alloy it's made of. Galvatron growls at Sixshot, "I just told you what it is! Hnnnh, need to figure out what happened..." He violently wrenches off the metal panel covering the console, revealing its innards. He snarls to himself. "Blast it, that polearm severed not only that throwback, but the mechanisms inside the console! Perhaps you're right then, Carjack--whoever shut down energon production did a little more than just pull the switch down. Carjack, hotwire this thing, repair it, do WHATEVER you need to do to get this console working again." He turns towards Windshear, frowning a bit. "Hm, well, finally some good news. Perhaps our mystery saboteur couldn't bring himself to dismantle the flowlines, too. And as for who THAT was..." His optics narrow. He looks at the face carefully. "He's... no one. But he is neither a Decepticon, nor is he an Autobot. He may have been trying to stop the saboteur, but why try such a thing alone? That may be a secret we will never discover." "Right away sir!" Discarding the polearm like a forgotten toy, Carjack walks up and peers into the gape left in the machine by it spearing both the poor sucker and the hardware like a pinned butterfly. "Hmmm." He looks around the terminal a bit, the squats down to look for a maintenance port, or baring that just some sort of panel he can remove. Windshear acknlwedges Galvatron's response to his comment with a nod and then heads over to where Carjack is. He listens to what else Galvatron says afterwards but honestly just doesnt know enough about this incident in the past go add anything so he says nothing. Instead he looks at the insides of the panel then to Carjack. "I am moderately skilled in things of this nature though not formally. Perhaps I could help you?" Maintenance panels are all over the console. In fact, one could take the screws off all the exterior metal panels and thus leave it completely exposed. Screws? Bah! Undoing screws takes too long.. especially when one has someone as potentially impatient and certainly prone to mood swings as their mighty leader looming overhead. So instead of taking the long and time consuming root Carjack reactivates his hydrolic cutter, using just the tip of it to prevent damaging any electronics farther underneath, picks a panel and goes to cut it off. Much more quickly executed this way. Then goes to start rooting about inside the console afterwards. Abominus finally widens the hole so that he can squirm through, with some difficulty. He heaves himself through to the other side. "GARRRRR...Found something?" he wonders. Abominus usually isn't much for words, but the fact that nobody's doing any more smashing has him stumped. Galvatron peers nervously over Carjack's shoulder, like a father looming over a doctor delivering his child. He paces a bit, then when Abominus speaks, Galvatron turns, and stares incredulously at the combiner. "What? Ah, Abominus. Oh, yes, we found something. You may demerge now. I'm sure your... "components" will want to see this. Good job making that breach a little wider, though." Windshear tosses the removed acecss panal aside, "Give me your flashlight." he says and then shines it into the access area to give Carjack a better view of whats inside. Dirge lets out what can best be described as a quiet sigh. "What secrets did you once hold, and perhaps still?" he questions of the corpse. "Are we the same as you, with only a little more patience?" Reluctantly, the titanic Decepticon complies, and splits, separating into five component parts, each landing in robot mode. Hun-Grrr, chief among them, looks over at Galvatron and Carjack, "Raaahhh, what is it Galvatron? What did you find?" He's rather disappointed that there aren't any Autobots, he's always hungry after merging. He's long suspected that while merged the other Terrorcons siphon off his energon reserves, but he's never had the wherewithal to confirm it. Mechanical Wyvern flaps his wings as he comes out of the de-merge. He hops around impatiently around Hun-grrr. "When we get shred Autobots?" he asks repeatedly, like a child that has asked 'Are we there yet?' for the 50th time. Galvatron gestures up to the Core. "That, Hun-Grrr, is the Core of Cybertron. When fed with energy, it automatically converts it into energon and distributes it throughout the planet. And... we are TRYING to turn it back on! In order to move on to the next stage of my plans, we need that core back online! Sadly, that may take a bit of emergency maintenance..." Two-Headed Dragon's hind legs push off against the ground. The two heads lower to the ground, mouths open, and they become the feet of a terrible robot. Its forelegs curl and rotate, becoming part of its back. The tail pops open to reveal a head, and its hind legs open, becoming arms and fists. It is now Hun-Grrr, Terrorcon Leader. Sixshot says, "Have patience, Cutthroat." Sixshot says. "Whatever this puzzling contraption is, if Galvatron has seen fit to procure it, it will bring us glory, and the Autobots will likely come to us! Then, we will rend their chassis with fervor!" Sixshot says, shaking a fist." Carjack has both hands free to work once Windshear is holding the light for him, cramming them both inside of the console and rummaging about, mostly playing it by ear and touch since it's such an old system he's working on here. "If I can just find the console's main adjunture point and reroute the power grid access through it to bypass the damages done by the sloppy blademanship, seriously, spearing a perfectly good corpse like that and then -leaving- it there to rust... oh, hey, I think I found something." He ducks down and sticks his head a bit farther inside to see what he's doing. Dirge whispers softly, "The Core. This is a place of reverence, and silence.. the dead heart of a dead world. Do we come here as parasites, as eaters of the dead, or..?" he trails off, then steps forward, voice full of gravel and optics on fire. "From this death, we bring life!" he growls, loudly, as if proclaiming it to those assembled. Then his voice drops back to a whisper. "And from that life, death anew." "Soon, Cutthroat," and for added emphasis, he makes a fist with his right hand and brings it into his open right hand, "very soon." Among his fellow Terrorcons, and even most Decepticons, Hun-Grrr is fairly intelligent, he simply chooses not to advertise it; plus he does have some incredibly strong primal urges, which he frequently unleashes on his foes. With no desire nor expertise, he leaves that emergency maintenance to others. He turns his back and walks over to what can now be charitably called a doorway. It was a mistake to widen that. They won't be able to defend it as well as before. But then, Abominus is hardly a scalpel. He sees, he destroys, he looks for me. Galvatron, still peering over Carjack's shoulder to check his progress, muses, "That is the way of the universe, Dirge. All things must kill in order to live. And if they do not kill, they will be killed and replaced by superior lifeforms. That is a lesson the Autobots have never learned, and one we understand quite well. It is why one day, we will inevitably destroy every last one of them." Mechanical Wyvern finally settles down somewhat, since there seems to be nothing to do yet. No enemies have arrived. A good bit of the Wyvern's energy has been spent as Abominus, and he lets his systems recuperate. "Yes, killing good! Killing fun!" he caws, upon hearing Galvatron's words. Carjack says something that's likely zealous agreement, but it's muffled by his head and arms being inside the console, trying to put broken pieces back into place, or find ways to reroute around damage he can't fix. Finally he takes his hands out, and grabs both sides of the opening to pull his head out as well. "That's about all I can do, at least for a patch on the site job. If it doesn't work, there may be more obstructions farther up the system." Windshear shuts the flashlight off and hands it back to Carjack. Then the Seeker steps to the side to not get between Galvatron and the control panel. Sixshot turns toward Dirge, giving him a quizzical optic, then spins on his heel facing Galvatron, inspired by his insight. "Yes my liege, glorious death, bringing valor to our cause! Let their life energon fuel our reserves, so we may strike out in yet greater numbers and against greater opposition! The wek and the strong shall equally tremble at the vocalization of our name, and the vision of our emblem!" Finally, that tears it. Hun-Grrr has had enough of this sycophant. He can't stand it any longer. In plain sight of Galvatron, he walks up to Sixshot, staring him optic to optic, and informs him that, "If you do not cease that snivelling, , sycophantic, submissive, obsequious fawning, I'm going to rip a hole in your face plate, and then ram my sonic stun gun down your throat." Galvatron nods his head, regarding the console. "Very well, Carjack. Hrm. I suppose I can send the Constructicons down here to take a look at it. But for the time being, we need to restart energon flow NOW. Our world has been dead for too long!" He grasps the switch again, throwing it to the up position. There's a few sparks from the console, and nothing happens for a few moments. Galvatron looks alarmed, but then, lightsources scattered across the Core light up, bathing the entire chamber in a heavenly white glow. Galvatront then listens for something. "Do you hear that?" he says. There's a trickle of fluid running somewhere, which then becomes a powerful rush of fluid. "Hahaha, that's energon! Yes, it worked! Energon is flowing to our world once again!" Galvatron approaches one of the many fuel lines connected to the core, and triggers a release valve. At once, energon sprays forth from the valve, and Galvatron collects some of it in his cupped hand. He drinks this fluid, and is silent for a moment. "Ahh... it has been so long. Decepticons, THIS energon is not like the synthesized garbage we've grown accustomed to. THIS is energon in its purest, true form. And yes, with this new, unlimited source of energy, the whole galaxy shall learn to fear us!" He holds his hands up high above his head, and energon trickles down his arms. "Glory to Cybertron! Glory to the Empire! And GLORY TO ME! HMHAHAHAHA!" Dirge inclines his head as he looks at Cutthroat. "It is not in the killing, nor in the sport, Terrorcon. The lesson is in the dying. That moment when what was once alive is now dead; it draws an indelible mark on the universe. Each death little by little, piece by piece, chipping away at the fragile boundaries of possibility. The threads of reality fray, the tapestry unravels and the remnants recombine to await only more destruction." Mechanical Wyvern gets bored and starts picking at the edges of the hole with his beak. There's a few stray bits that can be snapped off, with a bit of work. He'd take the whole wall down if allowed. Windshear merely stands there looking from Sixshot Hun-Grr's .. uhm.. discussion, to Dirge, to Galvatron pleased at the energon now flowing and finally over at Carjack. "I wouldnt put your tools up just yet -- might need them..." he suggests quietly. Carjack rubs the side of his helm. "... wow, it -did- work," he murmurs under his breath. Then casts a wary glance towards Hun-Grrr and Sixshot. Then towards the remains of the sucker that was pinned to the terminal in the first place. Reachs over to pat the corpse on the head lightly. "If this keeps up you won't be alone in your rusting place much longer," he muses. Galvatron fixes Sixshot and Hun-Grrr with a dirty glare. "That's enough squabbling out of you two. This is a GOOD day. You should be celebrating, not brawling like morons! Hahaha! Ah, yes... Well! Our next order of business is to post a guard here, then seal this wall off again so that those naive Autobots don't try to shut off the flow." Dirge rasps, "Celebrating? Preparing. The taps of Cybertron are opened, the lifeblood flows freely. There will be war." Windshear mms, "At least a warm up battle that looks like its about to happen here..." "A very short war, when we have power and they don't!" Agree with but otherwise ignoring Dirge's gloomy prophecy, Carjack trots over to the open spout once Galvatron is finished with it. He opens his chest panel with one hand and pulls his spare energon storage tank out, disconnecting it from his refueling apparatus, and holding it under the floor of fresh pure energon to refill. "Let the war come. It's upon its ashes we will build the Empire mighter than ever!" Message: 8/1 Posted Author Spring Thu Jul 29 Anonymous ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ In the middle of Magnaron, a Cybertronian truck stops in the middle of the ravaged territory, and its doors open. Four humans wearing gas masks step out, taking in the devastation with a sense of awe. "Alright," the Cybertronian says after transforming. "Magnaron can be pretty dangerous, especially since the Autobots and Decepticons are always fighting over it, so I'll keep this part of the tour short and sweet. This is Magnaron, a huge intersection that was once the largest in all of Cybertron. However, war has taken its toll on this place, as you can see, but not just that. Magnaron has been flooded with water, toxic wasted, and even been damaged by the planet eating Unicron. Now, let me show you some of the landmarks here, or the ones that are left. Over there, you can see the Ruined Crystal Forest..." While the Cybertronian talks, two of the humans, a married couple, talk to each other. "See, honey?" the husband mutters. "I told you it was a good idea to come here. This planet's amazing! I've never seen anything like it!" The wife doesn't sound sure, however. "I don't know," she replies, "Securing a trip to this planet was ridiculously expensive. I mean, I know you make a lot of money on your business but aren't there nicer places on Earth we could have gone to? And isn't it dangerous to be here? This is a warzone!" The husband is about to reply, but he notices one of the other humans, a young woman, looking at something in the distance. "Any questions...?" the Cybertronian asks, and the young woman points at something in the distance and asks, "What's that?" The Cybertronian looks at where she's pointing, and his jaw falls open. "That's a... a... an energon spring!" Indeed, energon is spraying out of a spring before the Cybertronian's very optic sensors, and he looks around the horizon, gasping as he sees there is more than one of them. The Cybertronian will later learn that energon is once again flowing throughout the planet of Cybertron, and eventually, it will once again have rivers and lakes of the life-giving fuel. Message: 2/74 Posted Author Springtime Thu Jul 29 Galvatron ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ When the video feed begins, Galvatron is standing in front of an energon spring on Cybertron, which is spewing out energon in a jet of fluid roughly fifteen feet high. Galvatron gestures to the spring, smiles wickedly, and says only, "*We won.*" The message ends.